LinkedIn Marketing: Building Your Online Brand

With more than 300 million members, there’s no denying LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network. Studies show 94% of recruiters who use social media uses LinkedIn. I will show you how I received over 1000 views and 4 interview requests in one week. I might actually leave this one out because I used some Black Hat techniques which are not so good for the world wide web, feel free to shoot me a message though :-).

Establishing Connections

LinkedIn at the end of the day is a social network site, therefore it is all about establishing connections. When you connect with other professionals in your discpline, you are in a position to gain more insight and knowledge in the industry. Have a question? Ask someone one of your connections. Want to attend more networking events in your area? You can find out this information on LinkedIn as well. In short, LinkedIn is a decent career accelerator.

How should you go about achieving said connections? Here are some simple but often overlooked tips:

Have a profile image — a professional headshot is usually recommended. Personally I have a more casual one just to show who I am on a everyday basis.

Send invitations to connect, surely you don’t expect others to find you. Begin by searching for people you already know in your field, send them a personal message and invite them to connect.

Ask your friends and/or colleagues for recommendations and endorsements – an area I am not quite fond of because it is just another popularity contest. I constantly find myself having to recall that this is a social network site.

Promoting Yourself

I always see LinkedIn as a way of promoting yourself professionally. Whether you’re employed, looking for a job, or a business owner, think of your LinkedIn page as a personal website that can be used to share your accomplishments with your connections. After all, you now know what potential connections are out there; a high-profile partner or client could be impressed by your work.

Behavioral health expert Shannon Freedle encourages young professionals to “Keep in mind that LinkedIn should not be used as your resume. The difference is that a resume informs others what you’ve done, while LinkedIn tells viewers you who you are.”

Ms. Freedle also further advises, “While sharing a summary of your past education and experience are important, it’s more vital to illustrate your value and what you can bring to the table.”

For the more visual learners:

This is a good rule of thumb I use.

WRITTEN BY

Jacky Chou

I moved to Germany on a whim for an internship at a mobile application marketing company. I have always loved meeting new people and as a personal goal I will make an effort to meet someone new every couple of days. I want to be able to fondly look back at this experience in the future with something warm in my mug.